The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-12-24
Special Contributors.
THE YEARS GREAT FESTIVAL.
BY HATTIE TYING GRIswoLD.
columbus. Wis.,


Silence and mystery, and an atmos-
phere of dreams hover about everything
connected with that solemn midnight
centuries ago, when in Bethlehem of
Judea, was born the child to whom the
world owes its great festival of Christ
mas. The story grows misty with the
fight of ages. In dim and far away
perspective we see the setting of that
divine tragedy,-the little village of
Nazareth, the sea Of Galilee, the will
derness of Judea, the Jordan, the ex-
ceeding high mountain, Capernaum,
Gethsemane, Calvary. All that art can
do to embody for US the mother and the
child, has been done-was done centu-
turies ago-all that poetry can do has
been essayed throughout the years; all
that eloquence can accomplish has been
tried by inspired lips down through the
ages, and yet the mystery deepens;
there are depths of silence under all
this sound, and the atmosphere of the
dream is over it all. Could we bring
the Christ-child out into the hard and
garish light of day, how soon would
the spell which he now casts upon the
world be broken. Could we exhibit
him in the market place, he would soon
become like one of us. The charm Of
zenaetcaessi1eneeR tire greatestlo oASsRzAsl
which enthralls the human mind. What
we have reduced to knowledge Of the
senses, is the mere dregs of life. The
indefnable charm of the unknown, of
the half -known-of the dimly appre-
hended-of the mythical, is one of the
rarest possessions of our being. Would
that we could be content many times
to leave some of the sacred things of
life in this atmosphere of dreams-and
net insist upon dragging everything
into the sun.
Let US not insist upon hearing the
daisies grow. Let the secret of the ole
ander's blush remain hidden. Let us
not turn our glasses upon God while he
paints the lily. Let us admit the un-
movable, and not thrust ourselves into
the sacred places to study the evolution
of soul. There are deeps in the hearts
nearest to our own, which we have no
call to explore, and there are mysteries
in the sacred places of life, which we
are not called upon to make plain. So
let us leaveIthe Christ story alone. Let
us feel its beauty, its sublimity, its es-
sential truth. But let US not lay un-
holy hands upon it, and seek to reduce
it to formula. Let it gleam back
there in the darkness of that enchanted
time like point of fire; let the soft
mists encircle it, let halo gather around
it, let soft strains of the worlds most
delicious music float about it, let an
odor of incense rise up from it,-but
leave it in the atmosphere of dreams.
Do not try to explain lido not insist
upon the worlds seeing it just as you
see lido not make it matter of mer-
chandize. You will find it difficult
thing to reduce the Holy Ghost to an
equation. Let US take some of these
sweet sacred things for granted.
Let us be content that under the tur-
quoise skies of old Palestine, the blue
streams still reflect his cross; that the
pine trees wave as wave woman's hair,
and the penitent hears in their sighs his
hof in fha ordo fruix
ing spray breaking into flakes of bios
soming foam, whisper of his presence;
and that on the misty mountain tops
when day is done, the great scene of
the TRANSPORTATION is still enacted be-
fore the eyes of the faithful. Let us
be content that in all the lands to which
his faithful followers went to proclaim
his gospel, his name is known to-day
and his work is done. The Greek on
his rocky isle has learned it, and he
hardly treads the formal furrow or
plucks the clusters from the treillised
vine without reverent thoughts of the
one Vine and the many branches the
Roman learned it at an early day, and
to that lowly name have the grandest
temples of the world been built, the
grandest art of the world been dedica-
ted, and the sweetest music of the
world been sung. But not alone has the
Greek learned it amid his marble por-
ticos, or the Roman from amid his
fields of corn and olives, and by the
hores of his sparkling and full-freight-